ROCKFORD, MI – The Schwandt family now has a working oven and full cooktop in their kitchen, thanks to their appearance on The Rachael Ray Show.

The Rockford family of 12 boys, who appeared in an episode Wednesday, Sept. 25, received the new appliances along with some organizing tips and devices.

Jay and Kateri Schwandt’s home includes a main kitchen on the first floor and a second kitchen on the lower level. The oven in the main kitchen has not worked in the eight years they have been in the house, and only three burners worked on the stove.

Preparing meals often involved trips up and down stairs as the family used the lower-level kitchen for baking or when an extra burner was needed.

The Rachael Ray Show, working with Jay Schwandt in advance, arranged to surprise Kateri with a new stove and oven in the upstairs kitchen.

“It was so generous of them,” said Kateri. “It was a neat surprise that benefitted the whole family.”

When organizational expert Peter Walsh discovered paperwork stored in the broken oven, Jay said it was a little embarrassing.

“Nothing was staged,” he said. “Everything was real.”

Walsh came to the family’s home and provided strategies for organizing the sports equipment closet and the kitchen.

In the closet, he laid down Astro Turf to protect the carpet, stored shoulder pads on traffic cones, and hung baseball bats and hockey sticks from devices designed for gardening tools.

In the kitchen, besides the stove and oven, he added a chart for keeping track of activities and events, and wire baskets for each child’s paperwork.

Kateri and Jay said they were touched by Walsh’s comments about their family.

“I have never worked with a family of such loving, welcoming, awesome kids,” Walsh said on the show. “They are an incredible family.”

The family also visited the studio in New York. While there, Walsh had Kateri take a seat and watch her boys - and Jay and Rachael Ray - demonstrate 12 organizing strategies. They included pinning socks together before putting them in the laundry, clipping baseball caps to a curtain rod, and storing homework supplies in a shower caddy.

Overall, Kateri said the show did a good job of showing the dynamics of their busy family of 12 boys.

“(Walsh) appeared to really enjoy being around the boys and developing a relationship with them,” she said. “It was just a neat experience.”

Jay said he enjoyed watching the episode and seeing how it captured the two days the crew spent at their home.

On his Facebook page, he summed up the experience:

"We've done so much with many different media things over the last month, but the biggest thing for us is to show that we are a family unit! We eat together, pray together, hang out together, support one another and enjoy the heck out of being a big family! I think that all came across perfectly in the Rachael Ray thing, and in everything we do."